Snooker-only version of Pool Nation FX that lets you cue much more level with the table instead of down toward it so much and lets you lower the view more and level it out so you can aim (longer shots) better. Camera controls Not quite as convenient with controller or mouse, or quite as smooth with a mouse as ShootersPool, Virtual Pool 4 and Cue Club 2, but good enough to get the job done. They are the same as in Pool Nation FX except the view can be lowered a lot more so that you can overlap balls to see where exactly you're aiming, and the butt of the cue isn't up in the air anymore so the cue doesn't block you or get in the way of your vision. And every snooker / pool player knows the importance of not cueing downward unless there's no other way. Physics Spin was exaggerated in Pool Nation FX so I'm glad to see that toned down considerably here even if side spin still curves the path of the cue ball more than IRL. Neither this nor FX implements deflection: The cue ball when struck right of center doesn't move left initially like it should, so e.g. on the breakoff shot you still have to aim more toward the center of the pack than you would IRL or you'll miss the pack entirely. ShootersPool, Virtual Pool 4 and Cue Club 2 do have deflection implemented. That doesn't mean this game doesn't have its place. Snooker loopy It has far less overall content than FX, such as tables and locations so it feels like a stripped down version of it with additions and improvements made to snooker. The menu redesign looks kinda bad, but for snooker fans and people who have played IRL it's the better game for the above mentioned reasons plus the BBC TV snooker world championships type look and feel, even if that's a bare minimum effort minus the licensing. It still helps. Another reviewer wrote: "despite the crowd clapping and the referee counting score, it feels... soulless". Eh, you could say it's mostly a minimum effort, low budget FX reskin. Doing so would be forgetting that the alternatives are more soulless than this, not less. ShootersPool and VP4 are both very clinical, dry, utterly soulless simulator experiences. That leaves us Cue Club 2 which does an excellent job at simulating snooker but as a game with multiple cue sports in it, it too lacks the snooker vibe. It has a low detail art style. The graphics in SNC2019 aren't amazing either but it looks better than CC2 and has a more realistic art style, which is important when you want it to feel like you are playing snooker not any other videogame. While we're talking graphics: the cloth is much too brightly lit at least on the first table, even the cue loses some of its colour to that. I don't know if tables in the other locations are like that too because I haven't unlocked them yet. You get used to it, I don't mind it too much. It's the price you pay. Shot power It works very well and it's the same method as in Pool Nation FX. When you draw back, a curved power bar right above the cue ball fills. You can either lock the amount in place with a button press in order to shoot later (by pushing forward), or simply push forward to shoot immediately. The bar never gets in the way and auto-hides again immediately. You can disable the power bar entirely if you prefer and just "shoot with the mouse" or thumb stick like you have to in VP4 / ShootersPool and like you can in Cue Club 2. AI If a human at a snooker club played the way the AI plays in SNC2019, his opponents would force him to eat his chalk. It feels like you are playing against a bot, it doesn't play very human like. The singleplayer mode is difficult even on "Easy". The AI frequently plays safe in a cheap way by rolling the cue ball at *exactly* the right pace to come to a halt touching the object ball, so that you'll then struggle to create the angle needed to pot it or play a good safety. The AI feels scripted to every now and then just make a break and pull off pots Ronnie O'Sullivan wouldn't attempt. It has a tendency to leave you snookered unrealistically often, too. It doesn't feel like it has a consistent skill level, more like scripted to either have that particular visit to the table fail completely or not and then automatically make a 20+ break. Sometimes it's in between but that's much more common in humans than the AI. Once it's potted 2-3 balls the Easy AI is probably going to make a 20-30 break. It's a good thing it's so challenging to win though, as without that you'd burn through the game's limited singleplayer content too quickly. If you aren't already a snooker player and you like to play with aim assist lines disabled like I do, you don't stand a chance. Multiplayer Multiplayer is empty, the server is still up though. Feel free to add me if you want to play. Dark circles The game constantly generates dark circles on the cloth where the cue ball is going to end up subject to where your cue is currently pointing and the shot power you've locked in (see previous paragraph). I try to ignore the circles, they are nothing but an annoying, distracting inconvenience to me. You cannot turn them off. In fact, the lower(!) you set the aim assist lines level, the larger the dark circles get to avoid telling you exactly where the cue ball will end up. The higher the level of assist lines you enable the smaller the dark circles are. I play with the lines off because that was the whole point of improving the camera and cue elevation from FX wasn't it? So I get the largest most distracting circles on the table. The circle is removed and redrawn every time your cue moves a pixel and they have a somewhat animated effect to them. You set the assists level to OFF and the dev thought it a good idea to then greatly enlarge the one assist you can't turn off. Brilliant. Great tool for those who want to learn better cue ball control but OFF should mean OFF. Post by dev confirming they can't be disabled: https://steamcommunity.com/app/458830/discussions/0/1741101364287895112/?ctp=2#c1776010325113111920 60 FPS Unlike FX, it's hard capped at 60 fps. Maybe to keep the physics accurate, I don't know. I've tried to unlock the framerate with various .ini file edits as it uses Unreal Engine 4. My attempts were unsuccessful. Force disabling vsync through the graphics driver didn't do it either. Disclaimer It's not the highest production quality or most polished game ever, so don't expect to be overwhelmed by its presentation. You may run into a menu bug where a setting you changed wasn't remembered. It doesn't have all that much content either. It is priced accordingly. At the price of €4 and now €1.20 in the summer sale it's easily worth the money and I enjoy it, hence the recommendation.
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